Greetings from Las Vegas! My friend Beth and I came for the weekend to see Garth Brooks on Friday night and Miranda Lambert on Saturday. Both concerts were amazing. It was a fun, quick trip to kick off the holidays.
I also stopped in San Francisco on my way to Vegas for a holiday party, and I got to ride in my first driverless car! It was wild.
Three things to highlight from today’s list are two podcasts I was recently on, as well as a recording of the elections event I did with the Atlantic Council and Duco Experts. They’re each very different interviews. For Big Technology, I shared more about my journey at Facebook and how the company’s approach to politics changed. With the Go To Market Podcast, we talked about everything from the Packers to Taylor Swift to why businesses should care about all the elections next year. And then the Atlantic Council is a recording from our in-depth look at the 2024 elections.
Big Tech War Stories Podcast: The Rise and Fall Of Facebook’s Politics Obsession
GTM Unfiltered Podcast: How to Panic Responsibly in the AI Apocalypse
DFR Lab: Elections Everywhere All at Once
Also, keep an eye on Substack right now. One group of writers has sent a letter to leadership to pressure them to take action on extremist accounts highlighted in a recent Atlantic piece. Another is circulating, supporting Substack's approach to content moderation.
Nothing much else to report. Have a great Sunday, and safe travels to all of you heading somewhere. Allow yourself some extra time. Mercury just went into retrograde, and that always causes some travel hiccups and tech glitches!
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What I’m Reading
Financial Times: Deepfakes for $24 a month: how AI is disrupting Bangladesh’s election
Taipei Times: 2024 Elections: Bureaus to be on disinformation alert
International Journalists' Network: Advice for covering elections in the age of social media
Observer Research Foundation: The Rise of Global South: New Consensus Wanted
My Society: 20-Year Impact Report
Washington Post: Covert Indian operation seeks to discredit Modi’s critics in the U.S.
Caravan Magazine: The illusion of BBC India’s independent journalism
- : Guatemalan court asked to nullify election
DFR Lab: How foreign actors targeted Polish information environment ahead of parliamentary elections
Journal of Democracy: The World Has Become Flatter for Authoritarian Regimes
- : Inside the first-ever White House holiday party for internet celebs
New York Times: Inside the Troll Army Waging Trump’s Online Campaign
Washington Post: Support for TikTok ban crumbles, even among Republicans
ABC News: Meta ad policy allowing 2020 election denial followed warning of political backlash, sources say
New York Times: Social Media Is a Mess. Government Meddling Would Only Make It Worse.
Integrity Institute: Integrity Talks Series: How Platforms Engage Governments
Washington Post: How Discord became a breeding ground for extremists
Semafor: NBC News demands Trump campaign take down fake clip of reporter
New York Times: The 2024 Election Will Be Unlike Any Other. Is the Media Ready?
The Economist: When the New York Times lost its way
NY Mag: Lina Khan’s Rough Year Running the Federal Trade Commission
Washington Post: Democrats splurge on political ads on Musk’s X as advertisers flee
The Verge: The year Twitter died: a special series from The Verge
Politico: A Democratic campaign deploys the first synthetic AI caller
Wired: Microsoft’s AI Chatbot Replies to Election Questions With Conspiracies, Fake Scandals, and Lies
Mercury News: Stanford launches emerging-tech project co-led by Hoover Institution's Condoleezza Rice
Stanford: Call for Proposals: Expanding Online Trust & Safety Research
GAO: Artificial Intelligence: Agencies Have Begun Implementation but Need to Complete Key Requirements
The Rebooting: The State of Publisher Subscriptions
Microsoft: AFL-CIO and Microsoft announce new tech-labor partnership on AI and the future of the workforce
Microsoft: Policy Insights - 2024 Elections Chat with Ginny Badanes
- : The AI revolution is an opportunity for writers (the human kind)
Axel Springer: Axel Springer and OpenAI partner to deepen beneficial use of AI in journalism
Please support the curation and analysis I’m doing with this newsletter. As a paid subscriber, you make it possible for me to bring you in-depth analyses of the most pressing issues in tech and politics.
I'm glad you had a great time in Vegas. On Friday night, my wife and I went to the Sphere and saw U2. Amazing the amount of talented performers and spectacles within a few mile radius. Safe Travels home.